NASA is said to be investigating a claim that one of its astronauts
accessed the bank account of her estranged spouse while on board the
International Space Station, in what may be the first crime committed in
space.
Astronaut Anne McClain and Summer Worden, an Air Force intelligence
officer, married in 2014 and split in 2018, when Ms. Worden filed for
divorce. The pair have been involved in a custody battle over Worden’s
young son for the past year, but things git even more complicated
recently after Worden accused her ex-spouse of illegally accessing her
bank account from aboard the ISS. McCain admitted logging into the bank
account from outer space, but denied any wrong-doing, claiming that she
was just keeping an eye on the family finances to make sure their son
was well taken care of.
Ms. Worden says she became suspicious after noticing that her
ex-partner knew details about her spending, and when she asked her bank
about the locations from where her account had been accessed, she
learned that one of the computer networks used was registered to NASA.
The woman then filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), alleging improper access of private financial records and
identity theft.
“There’s unequivocally no truth to these claims,” Anne McClain wrote
on Twitter. “We’ve been going through a painful, personal separation
that’s now unfortunately in the media.”
On the other hand, Summer Worden told KPRC that she was appalled by her ex-spouse’s audacity and her own inability to keep anything private.
“I was shocked and appalled at the audacity by her to think that she
could get away with that, and I was very disheartened that I couldn’t
keep anything private,” Worden said.
NASA’s Office of Inspector General has reportedly been looking into
allegations against McClain, which if proven true, would most likely
constitute the first crime committed in space. The agency told the New York Times that they were not aware of any previous such crimes.
